Month: January 2018

Watch what it actually looks like when CRISPR snips a strand of DNA The CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique is an important concept to know about in these days of biotech advances, but it can be pretty difficult to visualize properly. Is it really like molecular scissors? Where does the DNA go? Is it a big molecule or a small one? Fortunately a group has created a 3D animation of the process that shows it at the molecular level. You can watch the animation, created by biologists at Russia’s Skoltech Institute and…

Equifax launches its credit locking app and extends free credit freezes through June Today was supposed to be the deadline for Equifax’s free credit freeze offering, but the company has decided to extend the service to consumers for another five months. Now, Equifax customers can request a credit freeze through June 30. Still, January 31 is the last day to cash in on free credit monitoring through Equifax’s TrustedID Premier program, assuming you still trust the company that failed to protect the personal data of 143 million users enough to…

Engine Biosciences raises million in Southeast Asia’s largest institutional seed round Life sciences startups in Asia are getting another boost with the $10 million investment in Engine Biosciences — a biotech company that’s applying machine learning to genomics for drug discovery. With its headquarters in both Singapore and San Francisco, the company has managed to attract some impressive investors from both the U.S. and Asia. The round was co-led by Danhua Venture Capital and 6 Dimensions Capital with additional participation from WuXi Apptec, EDBI, Paviliaon Capital, Baidu Ventures, WI Harper…

Pandora is laying off about 5 percent of workforce Streaming music service Pandora is laying off about five percent of its employee base and taking “other cost-saving measures” in an attempt to save about $45 million annually. According to Pandora’s 8-K filing, employees were notified today of the plan and the company expects the staff reduction to be complete by the end of Q1 2018. This is all part of an ‘organizational restructuring’ that will shift some resources to ad-tech and audience development. Pandora also announced plans to expand its…

Soraa’s new light bulbs skip the smart home and focus on the science of the color spectrum Everyone’s trying to build a better light bulb. These days, that means things like adjustable colors and smart home connectivity — for most companies. Bay Area startup Soraa is skipping all the noise for the moment, instead making color its primary focus. For five years, the company’s been producing products for places like art galleries and hotels, where color balance is a big part of the experience. In the past year, Soraa’s begun…